21st century

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The 21st century is the present century of the Anno Domini (common) era, in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. It began on January 1, 2001 and will last to December 31, 2100, though common usage believes January 1, 2000 to December 31, 2099 to hold this distinction. Technologically it is different from the 20th century mostly by changes brought about by the digital revolution of the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s.

Contents

Important developments, events, achievements

Politics

Science and technology

Initial date of the 21st century

Space Exploration

Medicine

Personal Technology

  • 2006 80% of world land surface has coverage by cellular networks for mobile phone use.
  • Mobile phone usage approaches 100% in developed countries. [2]

Other

Conflicts and civil unrest

Worldwide deaths from war and terror attacks

Furthermore, there are several wars and dictatorships continuing from the 20th century. In most cases, the death toll is unclear. See also [4].

Natural disasters

Sports

Issues and concerns

  • Note* Some of the following details are debatable, and must be considered accordingly.

Some of the things that have dominated discussion and debate so far in this century include:

  • Globalization. Advances in telecommunications and transportation, the expansion of capitalism and democracy, and free trade agreements have resulted in unprecedented global economic and cultural integration. This has caused (and is continuing to cause) huge economic and cultural shifts which have been the subject of considerable controversy. Gladly, the gradual shift towards greener capitalism, aka ethicism, promises to make good the globalization movement, and bring more unity to an often too divided world. It is summised* [5] that gradual ethical steps in three main areas (animals and the environment, employees, and consumers), are what will turn the tide in a favourable direction. The three stakeholders responsible for these changes are: governance, industry, and consumers.
  • Overpopulation. The United Nations estimates that world population will reach 9.1 billion by mid-century. Such growth raises questions of ecological sustainability and creates many economic and political disruptions. In response, many countries have adopted policies which either force or encourage their citizens to have fewer children, and others have limited immigration. Considerable debate exists over what the ultimate carrying capacity of the planet may be; whether or not population growth containment policies are necessary; to what degree growth can safely occur thanks to increased economic and ecological efficiency; and how markets should accommodate demographic shifts. Evidence forms that developed countries (such as Japan) suffer population implosion, and the population debate is strongly tied with poverty.
  • Poverty. Poverty remains the root cause of many of the world's other ills, including famine, disease, and insufficient education. Poverty contains many self-reinforcing elements (for instance, poverty can make education an unaffordable luxury, which tends to result in continuing poverty) that various aid groups hope to rectify in this century. Microcredit lending has also started to gain a profile as a useful anti-poverty tool.
  • Global warming. The majority of climate scientists think that the earth is currently undergoing significant anthropogenic (human-induced) global warming. [6] The resulting economic and ecological costs are hard to predict, and by the end of the 21st century could be quite severe.
  • Other environmental changes. Trends such as increased pollution, deforestation and biodiversity loss occurring in the 20th century are likely to continue into the 21st century.
  • Resource depletion may be a significant issue, with economic and environmental implications. Resources that could be depleted soon include oil and natural gas.
  • Global power. Issues surrounding the cultural, economic, and military dominance of the United States and its role in the world community have become even more pointed given its recent military activities, problematic relations with the United Nations, disagreement over several international treaties, and its economic policies with regard to globalization. Integration of the European Union and the African Union have proceeded.
  • Intellectual property. The increasing popularity of digital formats for entertainment media such as movies and music, and the ease of copying and distributing it via the Internet and peer-to-peer networks, has raised concerns in the media industry about copyright infringement. Much debate is proceeding about the proper bounds between protection of copyright, trademark and patent rights versus fair use and the public domain, where some argue that such laws have shifted greatly towards intellectual property owners and away from the interests of the general public in recent years, while others say that such legal change is needed to deal with the threat of new technologies against the rights of authors and artists (or, as others put it, against the outmoded business models of the current entertainment industry). Domain name "cybersquatting" and access to patented drugs to combat epidemics in third-world countries are other IP concerns.
  • Technology developments show no sign of ending. Communications and control technology continues to augment the intelligence of individual humans, collections of humans, and machines. Cultures are forced into the position of sharply defining humanity and determining boundaries on desire, thought, communication, behavior, and manufacturing. Some predict that by the middle of this century there will be a Technological Singularity if artificial intelligences are created that are smarter than humans. If these then create even smarter AI's technological change will accelerate in ways that are impossible for us to foresee.
  • Energy is becoming scarce and more expensive, due to the escalating demand for petroleum ("oil") and oil-based products such as gasoline and kerosene, unmatched by production. Discovery of new oil fields has not been sufficient to sustain current levels of production, and some fear that the earth may be running out of economically viable oil. While complete depletion will not happen in the near future, some fear that a peak in production will cause an end to the trend of economic expansion in modern society, perhaps resulting in a collapse of modern civilization itself. Economists argue that alternative sources of energy will prevent this disaster.

The United Nations lists global issues on its agenda here and lists a set of Millennium Goals to attempt to address some of these issues.

However, it is important to note that the current year is only 2008, which means we are only at the start of the century. Therefore, it is impossible to make detailed predictions about the future of this century.

Significant people

Influential people in politics as of 2007

(in alphabetical order)